In January 2001, a significant event happened in the life of the independent
Republic of Armenia: it became a full member of the Council of Europe. Since
January 1996, Armenia, the first among the Caucasus countries, has had a status
of a guest member in this organization. CoE, which was formed right after the
Second World War, passed a long road, and its main principles were respect for
human rights and liberties, and it cooperated with state bodies and public
representatives.



Taking into account the imperfectness of democratic, legal and civil society
institutions and its incompatibility with the required by the Council of Europe
standards, Armenia committed itself to fulfill, within a strict schedule,
certain requirements of the CoE,. The commitments are divided into four parts,
which relate to: a) ratification of a number of conventions regarding human
rights, b) state legislation, c) legal system reform, and d) the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict. These responsibilities, naturally, are possible to fulfill if
there is a political will of the state bodies and ruling political parties, as
the RA President, Prime Minister and leaders of the represented in the
Parliament political parties signed under the commitments on behalf of Armenia.




The Armenian authorities thereby officially committed themselves to follow in
the sphere of legislation, state government and foreign policy a rule, which
will enable Armenia to become a free and developing country, where oppositional
activists and participants of peaceful demonstrations are not persecuted and
subjected to violence, where people can freely move, where the highest values
are human lives, freedoms and rights, where there is no censorship, journalists
are protected, and where a person has an opportunity to express different from
the official opinion viewpoints and is not persecuted for it.



The General Assembly of the Council of Europe obtains a possibility to establish
contacts with our parliamentarians to discuss specific and urgent issues for the
country, including regulation of regional conflicts, relationship with
neighboring countries, the country interests in regional cooperation in various
fields, establishment of effective local government, the country’s identity,
history, culture and its specifics. For Armenia the important issues are
establishment of the atmosphere of trust and cooperation in the South Caucasus,
elimination of the blockade of the country, peaceful and political settlement of
the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, respect for human rights of Armenians living in
the neighboring countries, normalization of Armenia-Turkey and
Armenia-Azerbaijan relationship, acknowledgement of genocide of Armenians in
1915 by the Ottoman Turkey and other.



Process of fulfillment of responsibilities



Here we do not aim at analyzing all responsibilities of Armenia in front of the
CoE, and want to focus only on principal issues, which, in our opinion,
characterize the current profile of Armenia and the main challenges it faces:



a) Conventions

The most important step was undertaken- The European Convention on Human Rights
and Fundamental Freedoms, as well as attached to it resolutions 1,4,6 and 6 (p.6
related to elimination of capital punishment) were signed and ratified.
According to the defined procedures, Armenia joined the European Charter on
Local Self-Government, European Social Charter, the Conventions on Prevention of
Torture and Other Measures Humiliating Human Dignity, on Languages of Regional
or National Minorities, the Principle Agreement on Privileges and Immunities and
almost all other international documents related to the assumed
responsibilities.



b) State legislation

Amendments were made in the Criminal Code (confirming elimination of capital
punishment and decriminalization of homosexual relationship among adult people),
and several laws were adopted including Law on Ombudsman, on Political Parties,
on Non-Governmental organizations, on Civil Service, on mass media etc.



c) Legal system

To ensure absolute independence of judges, laws on Judicial Status and on the
Council of Justice were adopted, alternative military service entered into
force, penal system was transferred from the Ministries of Interior Affairs and
National Security to the Ministry of Justice, the “national” television was
transformed to “public” television.



d) the Nagorno Karabakh conflict

Visits to the region and efforts of representatives of the OSCE Minsk Group, led
by the USA, France and Russia continue, the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and
Armenia through regular meetings formed a so-called “Prague” process.



Nevertheless, the process is insignificant, and Armenia stays in the zone of
social and political risk. Negotiations on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, in
fact, came to the dead-lock, and although the cease-fire, settled in the
conflict zone in 1994 continues, the leadership of Armenia and Azerbaijan do not
exclude possibility of resumption of the war and recently have amplified mutual
accusations.



A gloomy situation in the area of human rights and liberties in Armenia is the
direct consequence of the atmosphere of xenophobia, intolerance and political
isolation. This is registered in the consolidated report of the OSCE and PACE
observers regarding the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2003, where
elections were characterized as “not meeting the democratic standards”. In our
opinion, the main reason for this is, first of all, lack of political will of
the authorities. Insufficient and inconsistent fulfillment, voluntary
interpretation and misuse of the content of commitments towards the CoE are
explained by this factor.



Insufficient fulfillment of the responsibilities



The Code on Administrative Violations still keeps the norm of administrative
arrest up to 15 days, which continues to be massively exploited for detention of
opposition activists, and particularly participants of meetings and
demonstrations, and journalists reporting on the events, and is aimed at their
further criminal prosecution. The law does not provide for rights of national
and religious minorities, no independent body composed of representatives of all
religious organizations is established. Although the Ministry of Justice
registered “Jehovah Witnesses” organization, several Jehovah witnesses are under
arrest. The Law on Ombudsman does not correspond to the CoE requirements,
because the Ombudsman is appointed by the RA President. Instead of alternative
civil service, alternative public works in military forces were adopted, and the
service period was prolonged from the maximum 36 months to 42 months.



The Regulatory Commission created on the basis of the Law on Television and
Radio cannot be independent and non-partisan, as it is formed by the RA
President. The CoE requirements particularly outline the importance of reforms
in the Electoral Code. Nevertheless, the provisions, protecting citizens’ right
to vote and imposing liability on those who violate this right, and limiting the
considerable interference of the RA President in formation of electoral
commissions were distorted. The Law on Meetings, Marches and Demonstrations
actually deprives people of using these democratic norms, because in contrast to
the western traditions, a “permission” procedure is introduced, and the list of
localities, nearby which no demonstrations are allowed, is significantly
extended. The Law on Political Parties previously required that there be 200
people and at least 4 persons in each of the 10 marzes. After amendments made in
December 2004, for registration of a political party it requires that there be
2000 people and regional branches at all marzes with a minimum of 100 members in
each branch.



Citizens of the Republic of Armenia demand their authorities to fulfill, at the
full extent and without slyness, commitments accepted in front of the CoE, and
also the requirements mentioned in the report of the monitoring group, as only
through this way it is possible to guarantee reinforcement of the values
declared by the Council of Europe: democratic pluralism, rule of law state and
human rights.